The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Monday, August 23, 2010

War News for Monday, August 23, 2010

MNF-Iraq (OIF) is reporting the death of a United States Forces – Iraq Soldier while conducting operations in Basra province, Iraq on Sunday, August 22nd.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 22nd.

NATO is reporting the death of a second ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 22nd.

NATO is reporting the death of a second ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 22nd.

NATO is reporting the death of a second ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 22nd.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in northern Afghanistan on Monday, August 23rd. This is being reported as an Hungarian soldier killed from an IED/small arms fire attack somewhere near Mazar-e Sharif city. Three additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, August 23rd.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two more ISAF soldiers an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan Monday, August 23rd.


US troops unlikely to resume combat duties in Iraq

16 wounded in violent demo over Iraq power rationing

Facing Afghan mistrust, al-Qaeda fighters take limited role in insurgency:.. The reports, which cover the escalation of the insurgency between 2004 and the end of 2009, mention al-Qaeda only a few dozen times and even then just in passing. Most are vague references to people with unspecified al-Qaeda contacts or sympathies, or as shorthand for an amorphous ideological enemy.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Baghdad police said unknown attackers in a speeding car threw the grenade in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood of New Baghdad in the capital's east around 6:30 a.m. Monday. The blast killed one policeman and wounded another, a city police official said.

#2: On Sunday, a grenade attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in Amariyah, a Sunni area in western Baghdad, killed one soldier and injured two others around 11 pm, police and hospital officials said.

#3: Earlier, a shop selling alcohol near central Baghdad was targeted by a roadside bomb that wounded two people.

#4: An hour later, another bomb struck a popular cafe in the capital's southwest. A policeman said the explosion killed one person and wounded 15.

#5: Two people were killed and 12 wounded when a bomb inside a cafe went off in Baghdad's southwestern district of Risala, an interior ministry source said.

#6: A sticky bomb attached to a car wounded two people when it exploded in Baghdad's western district of Furat, an interior ministry source said.

#7: Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire and wounded a retired Iraqi army brigadier general and his brother as they were driving in Baghdad's northwestern Kadhimiya district, an interior ministry source said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Four persons were wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Monday in central the al-Falluja city. “The blast occurred near a bus station in central Falluja,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that a policeman is among the wounded people.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The deadliest blast was a suicide attack at a mosque inside a religious school in South Waziristan, said an intelligence official in the region. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the orders set down by his agency. He said Maulana Noor Mohammad, a former lawmaker who ran the school, was among the 16 dead. Yar Mohammad, a local tribesman who was present inside the mosque, also said it was a suicide blast.

#2: Earlier, a bomb exploded inside a school during a meeting of elders in Kurram, killing seven people. Local official Khalid Umerzai said the elders at the meeting were discussing a disagreement over ownership of the school building. It wasn't clear if the blast was tied to that dispute or if it had been launched by Islamist militants.

#3: Afghan and ISAF troops killed 12 Taliban insurgents in northern Baghlan province on Sunday, ISAF said.

#4: ISAF-led forces killed two insurgents in an air raid in southeastern Paktia province on Sunday, ISAF said.

#5: Insurgents fired at least five rockets into Ghazni town southwest of Kabul, officials said. Two of the rockets hit government buildings and one policeman was wounded.

#6: Two soldiers from Australia’s 1st Mentoring Task Force (MTF1) remain in a satisfactory condition after they were seriously wounded on Saturday when an improvised explosive device detonated against their Bushmaster vehicle in the Baluchi Valley region of Uruzgan Province. The soldiers were part of a larger partnered MTF1 and Afghan National Army patrol at the time of the incident.


MoD: Lance Corporal Jordan Dean Bancroft

4 comments:

Cervantes said...

Here's a publication from India with an er, interesting prose style:

"The departure of the American combat personnel from Iraq would boost the position of the American President, Barack Obama, who is experiencing meager approval ratings these days in the opinion surveys that have been carried out to determine his popularity amongst the American inhabitants.

Obama is presently vacationing at Martha's Vineyard. A senior bureaucrat associated with the federal administration of Obama has divulged that Obama intends to discharge a substantial speech on Iraq subsequent to his reemergence in Washington, D.C. This bureaucrat has requested that the anonymousness of his identity be maintained. This bureaucrat has declared that the speechifying of Obama on Iraq will come into view shortly after he enters the White House on August 29.

America will possess 50,000 troops in Iraq subsequent to the certified termination of its combat assignment in Iraq on August 31. The report of this intended speech of Obama was initially divulged on Sunday by The New York Times."

All their stories are like that.

Dancewater said...

US Drone Strike Destroys House Full of Children in Pakistan

Dancewater said...

War Veterans/Military Family Members Successfully Blockade Fort Hood Deployment to Iraq.

Dancewater said...

‎"In fairness, we've been building 'ground zeros' near Iraqi mosques since March 2003." – Jason Mustian (via twitter). I would add that we have been building "ground zeros" near Iraqi churches also. A lot of them....